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Reread in November 2021 after watching the TV Show
I still feel that what I wrote below is accurate, but I'm enjoying the story and world-building so much after watching the TV show that I was encouraged to reread the book and, this time, continue with the series. I kind of switched off halfway through my first read because I wasn't particularly enjoying it, so I kind of missed a lot of the action and had totally blanked out the ending. I'm excited to continue this time around, particularly to learn how Egwene and Nynaeve develop into whatever the wheel has weaved for them.

Original Review from April 2021
Juvenile storytelling that I would probably have enjoyed in my 20s. The writing is wooden and the story is derivative and predictable. I won't be continuing with this series.

I found this to be a bit triggering to be honest. Maybe it's just how I'm feeling in my sobriety right now, but glamorous descriptions of glasses of things outside of a meeting? I can do without that. This was my first and probably my last dip into ‘quit lit'.

A solid 3 stars. It ramped up nicely in the second half and I felt like I knew the characters reasonably well. There's a lot more fleshing out that could be done in the next book, which is a nice way of building a series to keep the reader going.
The world-building was okay. I look forward to learning more about the world.
It was a clever way to portray traditional fantasy races with the idea of half-bloods and the racism angle that comes up. Nice to see a strong female lead too, even if she was a little thin in terms of back story. It would be nice to have had a POV shift to Fetch in a chapter or two to flesh her out a bit.
My favourite thing would have to be the hogs. They sound so cool!

It gets better on a second read after completing the series.

First review

I don't quite know why I waited so long to read this. I've read the first chronicles twice and the second thrice. I love those books so much. So why did I wait?

At first I was simply unwilling to start another series before they were finished. I've done that before and it's a pain. Are you listening GRRM? Then I kind of fell out of reading much other than in audiobook format, which AFAIK this first final chronicle is only available abridged. Why do they even do that?

But a recent reread of the second chronicles got me into the final chronicles, at last!

I enjoyed the opening scenes, but when we got to the Land I was a little unsure. It felt like more of the same and a little contrived, but as the story unfolded I got drawn right back in and having to use the dictionary again to look up words whose meaning I had forgotten from the other chronicles.

I read the last quarter in one sitting - that's where it really ramps up into a cracking finale.

I'm going to keep going this time and hope that the story continues at this pace. Inchoate, cymar, argent, puissance and all!

It didn't blow me away and I found that disappointing as I really enjoy Scott's blog. It was just a bit too scattered and surface-level for me to get any real value from it. Shame.

The idea of writing a review of the most important series of books I've read is rather daunting, so I'll just knock something out quickly to get over the scope of the thing.

I don't know what it was about the last chronicles that kept me from reading it for so long. I've read the first and second chronicles multiple times over the years, starting around 1991-ish when I was 20. My wedding band is white gold. My blog is at sunbane.com. I'm a fan.

So why did I only just finish the last chronicles today? Dunno.

And it took me a Long Time. I started reading the first of the last in October 2015. Partly that's because I'm more of an audiobook guy and still can't get any TC chronicles in the UK, so it meant reading with my eyes. I don't do that so much now.

Anyway, the book. Yeah. Damn. It's good. Yes there are sloggy bits and purple prose galore. And SRD hasn't reigned in his flowery vocab at all, has he? Maybe it's condign. I dunno. This is why I'm enjoying Stormlight Archive so much - heavy hitting fantasy and no dictionary required. And yes, towards the end of this book I did have to look up mansuetude again. The Chrome spell checker here doesn't care much for it either; it has a red squiggle.

And some of the names of the giants really took me out the book, as if I were reading a SNL parody.

But vocab and silly names aside, I say YES to this book and to the whole series. Sure, the final scene was a bit samey, but with enough of a punch to make me choke up a bit. In fact there were a few chokey-uppy moments. I found the ending 100% satisfying.

And now I'm done, I feel like going back to the first of the last again and rereading them all. Maybe the One Tree as well, just to get the whole Elohim bit and the story of Kastenessen as told by Findail the Appointed on Starfare's Gem.

I'm reading with my eyes a lot more these days and some of the history sections were rather dense. But they add so much to the first and second chronicles, particularly the whole Theomach storyline and the backstory of the Viles and the Demondim and the Colossus of the Fall.

I read this in high school in the 80s and didn't get it. My daughter did the same this year, but did get it. She persuaded us to watch the movie with her, which I did, and I really enjoyed it. So much in fact that I borrowed the book off her and re-read it. It's a gem.

This was a helpful book. I've been sober since 2005 and still learned a lot from this book. I got sober through AA so I am very well aware of its tenets. It was interesting to hear the author's view on the idea that alcoholism is a disease. My biggest takeaway was the section on FAB memory. I mean I knew about it before, but I'd never really thought about it where blackouts are concerned. I'm still curious to learn more. Maybe I'll listen to volume 2.

There wasn't much here that was new to me, but it was still worth reading. The messages that the book delivers are simple but so easy to ignore. It's a nice two-fer if read with [b:Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones 40121378 Atomic Habits An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones James Clear https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1535115320l/40121378.SY75.jpg 62221762] by James Clear.The second half got kinda dull and repetitive though. I mean what does opening a business bank account and how to deduct expenses have to do with motivation and mindset? That whole section should've been cut by the editor. My literature professor would've red-penned that whole chapter out with a comment that it's not answering the essay question! (although I'd probably not have been able to read his comment as his handwriting was atrocious). Yes, I mean you, Roger Keys.

I enjoyed this a lot. It's such a refreshing take on the fantasy genre and feels original and well researched. The style felt mature and grown-up and the pacing was just right. I will be continuing!

I could not more fundamentally disagree with the premise of a book than I do with this one. I tried to come into it with an open mind, really I did, but I think I am too far gone in my indoctrination into sober living. My life was fucked. Then I got into AA and got sober. What is wrong with that?

I have the humility to believe that I might be wrong, but all the evidence suggests that I am not. I haven't picked up since 2005 and attend AA intermittently.

I'd recommend Russell Brand's book Recovery. I'm reading it alongside this one. If this book is about chalk, Russell's is about cheese. I choose cheese.

I'm utterly blown away by this book. It explains way better than I ever could the exact philosophy I wrote about drunkenly to my now wife back when I was coming to understand my alcoholism and my relationship to my higher power.

I don't really get what the complaints had to do with anything.

This was such a powerful book and will inform my content creation for sure, particularly on YouTube. I listened to the audiobook and may well go through the Kindle version to highlight and synthesise.

One of the least enjoyable fantasy books I've read.

Life changing book

This was recommended to me by my own coach, although he admitted to not having read it! Some honesty right there! Reading this book has shown me that my decision at the age of 49 to start a brand new business as a coach is the right one. The way the book is laid out is just right at building the framework in my mind, without being too esoteric. It also does not read like a sales pitch for the coaching credentials, which I really liked about it. Although it does mention the ‘tools' a lot. I imagine that as soon as I open up the tools page, I'll get pixelled, but that's actually fine with me. I need to learn how to do that myself and keep in mind that marketing my business is not cringeworthy!

I have a lot of highlights and notes from the book and will be going through them shortly in a progressive summarisation way. There was just so much value that I feel like writing up maybe an article would be a great way for me to consolidate what I've learned and internalise it.

I got a lot out of this book, but how to take smart notes wasn't one of them. I know what they are and how they work, but there were no examples of how to take them and I'm still not really sure how to start.

I loved this so much. I studied Russian literature at university, including a module on Akhmatova, so I have a lot of context from which to draw. It was fascinating to see these characters' coming to life.

Amazing choice of narrator in Yelena Shmulenson.

Lots of takeaways in this that I'm going to start implementing. Yes, it's sales pitchy as in ‘buy my KPI course', but it's still a valuable read.

I liked the concepts of the entrepreneur, the technician and the manager. I did get a bit b0red towards the end though. I feel like it could have been half the length and just as valuable.

Listened on Audible at 2x and enjoyed it so well that I'm going to read the Kindle version so that I can take notes and build out my story-telling method.

Long and sprawling, but enthralling and enchanting. Incredibly well researched and great choice of Audible narrator in Elena Shmulenson, clearly a native Russian speaker, which made all the difference in the world.

It was a little ‘chick lit' for my tastes, but I I enjoyed it all the same. I was already too far in before I found out that this is only part 1; had I known that, I would have left it, and now I'm left without satisfaction.

I can't even begin to imagine how an author undertakes such a huge novel, but Janet Fitch has done marvelously well in my humble opinion. The writing is literary and poetic.

One to Keep Dipping Into

I have a bunch of quotes from this on my inspiration wall in Notion. It fires me up when I'm feeling demotivated and afraid.

As I was reading this, I was thinking to myself that this should be compulsory material for schools. Then the author hit upon that very point towards the end of the book. He talked about how school pupils surveyed responded that they had learned about sex, about nutrition, about general health and exercise but NOT about the importance of sleep.

I can see me buying this book for people as gifts. In fact, I'm going to do just that today for my wife. Then there will be a hardcopy round the house for me to dip into as well.

The Audible version is very well narrated: easy to follow and a pleasant voice to listen to.

12 Tips for Better Sleep from the Appendix:

1. Sleep schedule. Set a bedtime alarm.
2. Exercise not too late in the day.
3. Avoid caffeine and nicotine. It can take 8 hours for caffeine to leave your body.
4. Avoid alcohol before bed. It robs you of REM sleep.
5. Avoid large meals late at night.
6. Avoid medicines that delay your sleep.
7. Don't nap after 3pm.
8. Relax before bed.
9. Take a hot bath before bed to reduce your core temperature.
10. Dark bedroom, cool bedroom, gadget-free bedroom.
11. Get exposure to daylight through the day.
12. Don't lie in bed awake. Get up after having been awake for 20 minutes.

This was great. It's a recommended book for August Bradley's Pillars, Pipelines and Vaults course for Notion. I'm part of the first cohort of that course and it's all about mindset and systems thinking, two concepts that I'm hoping I can use to get my health and wealth in better positions.

It's a little scientific, but not so scientific that I got lost. I did try listening to the audiobook first and found that that didn't really work for me, so I got the Kindle Edition and that made a lot more sense. I have made a lot of highlights and they have been sucked into my knowledge vault in Notion, so I may well come back to this and write a longer review with some quotes and thoughts that they triggered, or maybe even a YouTube video as that's another area where I see some growth for me. That's exactly the sort of area where I see systems helping me in a big way.